Just a heads up - Appears that Hellgate London has gone gold! In a bit of a suprise, Flagship appear to be releasing a single-player Demo of the game this week as well..

Demons of London beware! Your reign of terror is officially coming to an end! Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai Games, and Flagship Studios are excited to announce that Hellgate™: London has gone to gold master and will be available exclusively for the PC on October 31st in North America and November 2nd in Europe.

"This has been an amazing journey for us and we couldn't be more proud of what we've accomplished," said Flagship Studios CEO, Bill Roper. "We're anxious to get Hellgate: London into gamers' hands and we can't wait to play right along with them."

And for those gamers who can't wait until Halloween to get their Demon-slaying on, Flagship Studios is releasing a singleplayer demo tomorrow, Thursday, October 18th.

The single player demo represents just a small taste of the Hellgate: London experience. Gamers can choose from two of the game's six character classes: the Blademaster, a master of swordplay and action-packed melee combat, or the Marksman, a cool, calculating, long-range specialist. In the demo, these heroes are able to battle through a small handful of storyline and side quests as they adventure through the streets and tunnels around London's Holborn Station.

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Definitely keen to see how the single player demo goes - As much as I still enjoy WoW, would be very happy to find something to replace the niche that Diablo 2 filled nicely.

Although justifying another game purchase this closely on the heels of Bioshock & Orange Box might take a bit of work...

This is one game that really just does nothing at all for me, I couldn't be less interested in it. Not that it looks outright bad, it just doesn't look like its doing anything particularly new or interesting. And paying to play for an MMO is one thing, but playing to play for a diablo clone is a line I'm not willing to cross quite yet.

With games like Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect all coming out next month, how can there possibly be room for something like this?

I was under the impression that you don't have to pay to play if you don't want to? Doesn't paying just get you more bag space and crap like that?

That's the one.. The subscription option is just that - an option. You can still play the single player & multiplayer without subscribing, but you don't get access to whatever benefits the paid service offers.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070511.jpg

Yes, and I'm sure that that comic isn't at all an exaggeration.

I'm not particularly interested in Hellgate either, but the reasons for that have absolutely nothing to do with paying an optional monthly fee to look a little cooler and have more bank space.

i read that the subscription players get to play hardcore mode, which was the best thing about diablo 2 by far.

... you know you can implement hardcore mode yourself don't you?

ain't hard to click "delete character"

I might check out the demo but going by the gameplay vids on Youtube to me it looks like it wont hold my attention for long. Gameplay looks very average. But I could be wrong and actually playing the thing might be fun.

... you know you can implement hardcore mode yourself don't you?

But it's all about the e-peen of having a high level harcore character.

Also, yeah. All the gameplay videos look incredibly dull, but then I guess so would watching gameplay videos of people playing diablo. I'll definitely give offline co-op a go.

- 3 character slots for free-play vs 12 character slots if you pay.
- If theres server queues, the people who pay get straight in while the free-play people get queued up so the paying people can have priority access.
- Twice as much bank space if you pay (20 slots if you don't pay, 40 if you do)
- You can't use the epic/unique looking armour and weapons if you don't pay
- You get access to an ingame VIP 'shuttle' system to take you to remote areas if you pay.
- You can't start a guild or be an officer in a guild if you don't pay.
- You can't use player housing if you don't pay.
- As already mentioned, you get additional game modes (including Hardcore) when you pay. I've also seen PvP listed as one of the game modes you get when you pay so that might imply no PvP if you don't pay.


So yeah, you could play it for free, but you're going to be getting a slightly castrated version. The free play version of the game is obviously just meant to tease you enough that you end up paying for it. I'm not against pay to play by any means, but this just seems like such a blatant cash grab imo.

So you'd prefer it if they made it so you can either pay to play or not play at all?

Good mate recieved his beta copy today. time will tell

How much is it a month?

How much is it a month?

$10 USD I think?

So you'd prefer it if they made it so you can either pay to play or not play at all?

I'd prefer it was just free. MMO's at least have a justification for their pay-to-play model, but this is just Diablo with some community features added in and they're charging MMO rates for it? Really not worth the $$ in my opinion.

Yeah, I could accept them asking Dosh to play on their servers.

However, for a game like this they should allow offline Private servers, with full access to everything.

The fees seem reasonable to me. I don't think its particularly valid to compare them to an MMO subscription - they are optional, and the game has an offline single player mode. I wonder if it has LAN support? Installation Spawning?

If I spent much time playing it I could see a reason to fork out the $, especially if server congestion is an issue.

My understanding is that the offline play (if you dont pay) is also heavily gimped.

seems like a decent compromise between regular games and pay-to-play

Looks like a bunch of public beta invites have gone out.

its out now. links to mirrors on ve3d.

gamershell are mirroring it, but not on the iinet server for some reason :(

Also now with adware :(

sounds like a whole bunch of gay to me

Pay to play and Ads to play? Very gay.

The difference is, if you want to play the full game offline you should be able to without extra costs (You purchase the game in the first place).

Playing online I can totally understand the reasoning behind P2P and/or some 'Backround' ads.

So, you pay to buy the game.
Then you pay some more to unlock the full game.
Then you have to put up with ads, in a game you've already paid for twice.

Sounds like a whole lot of gay to me.

I don't know why people complain about p2p, if you can't even afford about $15 aus. a month you should either get a job or look at what else you blow your money on. You can still play this game free, just people who pay get access to better stuff. Like everything in life.

I think the fact that the game is restricted in single player mode even after you have forked out up to $100 for it is pretty lame. I can't think of any other game that does that but then that might be because if there was one, like this one, I wouldn't be interested in it.

Paying to play on servers supplied is one thing I can understand since they cost money to maintain and run. Paying to open up content that you've already paid for is just gay beyond words.